Pressure Building for Draft Of Players From Outside U.S.

By ALAN SCHWARZ

Published: July 13, 2008

Omar Minaya, the Mets' general manager, has the scars to prove how rough-and-tumble the scouting of Latin American baseball prospects can be, and how treacherous a draft of such players once was.

In spring 1985, after Major League Baseball experimented with a draft of Dominican Republic amateurs, the record-keeping of eligible prospects was so haphazard that several players were selected by more than one team. One of them was a shortstop named Rafael Cruz, who was taken by Minaya's Texas Rangers as well as the Baltimore Orioles. A nonplussed M.L.B. official told Minaya, ''Whoever gets to him first gets the player.''

Minaya rushed to Santo Domingo. In his haste, he stepped on a flimsy manhole that collapsed, causing a piece of wood to slice a two-inch-deep gash in his leg. Cruz never made it out of Class A, but Minaya's scar -- and baseball officials' apprehensiveness to try a worldwide draft again -- remained.

''It was administrative chaos,'' Minaya later recalled.

But the subject of holding a draft for players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and other nations has bubbled up once again because of an F.B.I. investigation into whether scouts and major league executives have been pocketing money that was earmarked for Latin prospects. On Friday, ESPN.com reported that Washington Nationals General Manager Jim Bowden and his deputy, Jos?ijo, were under investigation for their roles in signing Dominican players. In a statement released Saturday, Bowden said he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing.

Several front-office members on Saturday said that they expected the inquiry to push M.L.B. into creating greater order on the international talent front, either by instituting a draft for such players or by folding them into the current June draft for players from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

''The reality is, we're finding that there have been dollars not going to players -- guys who used to get $30,000 but are now getting reported bonuses of $350,000 are actually getting $75,000 and the rest is going to other places,'' said Mike Arbuckle, the Phillies' assistant general manager who oversees scouting. ''The whole business down there, the F.B.I. and baseball have decided to take a hard look at it. And part of the response is, we eliminate a lot if we just put these guys into the draft. This is a way of cleaning it up.''

Baseball has talked since the 1980s about holding some sort of worldwide draft, mostly in response to large-market teams' outbidding others for the best talent. Many of the must-haves ended up as high-priced busts -- like Jos?ett of the Toronto Blue Jays and Jackson Meli?of the Yankees -- and small-market teams were still able to land talent, like the Montreal Expos' signing Vladimir Guerrero for $3,500. But as million-dollar signings like Alfonso Soriano of the Yankees and Francisco Rodr?ez of the Angels blossomed for large-market teams, teams with fewer resources supported a more equitable system.

Another reason for a draft was greater oversight of player ages, which were often falsified by players so they could appear younger and more promising than they truly were. That practice slowed considerably because of greater scrutiny of visa information by the United States after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Scouts and club officials who have opposed the draft prefer what they consider today's remnant of scouting's past: an ''eat what you catch'' system in which talent hunters comb dusty diamonds for promising players, then vie for a signed contract. In addition, clubs that had invested millions in developing academies and relationships in other countries were reluctant to give up any advantage, and any draft changes are subject to negotiation with the players union.

In part because comparable Latin American players generally could be signed for a small fraction of what similar American talent would cost through the June draft, players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela alone comprised a peak of 18 percent of opening day rosters last year, according to data compiled by M.L.B.

Agreements with Japan's major leagues would most likely exclude that nation's players from any worldwide draft.

M.L.B. and the players union actually agreed to the concept of a worldwide draft during the labor deal of August 2002. An addendum to that contract said, ''The parties agreed that there should be a worldwide draft,'' and officials believed it would be implemented by 2004 at the latest. But the joint committee to determine the details barely met, members said, and when it did, M.L.B.'s interest in it had waned to the point where it was barely discussed in the 2006 labor negotiations.

But with more teams entering bidding wars and driving up prices -- the Oakland A's recently broke the bonus record by spending $4.25 million on the Dominican pitcher Michel Inoa -- as well as the F.B.I. investigation uncovering wrongdoing, more executives plan to support changes.

''It's the wild west down there, so I'm happy about this,'' said one assistant general manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the F.B.I. probe. ''The people who are being honest are glad, and the people who are doing the wrong thing are scared.''